1. Field of the Invention
Persons in some professions and in some occupations find it desirable to wear apparel that includes fabric which has a long wetting time but is not impervious to air. Such apparel can "breathe"; and hence provides more comfort for the wearer than can apparel which includes impervious materials such as rubber, synthetic rubber or plastics. As a result, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and other persons who work in the operating rooms of hospitals find it desirable to wear apparel that includes fabric which has a long wetting time but is not impervious to air.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Page 87 of Staple Cotton Fabrics by John Hoye, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1942, states:
"According to research recently made by a committee of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists and reported in the Dyestuff Reporter of Jan. 5, 1942, it has been shown that the amount of resistance of a treated fabric to water penetration is dependent more upon its construction than upon the water repellent used. The closer woven the fabric, the better the resistance of the finished fabric to water penetration of water". PA1 "Of the untreated samples, the cotton duck and wool melton offer the best resistance to a hydrostatic head and spray test. In addition, the cotton duck offers the best resistance to water absorption. These two fabrics are probably the thickest and most tightly woven and it would be expected that they would offer higher resistance on this basis alone". PA1 "VENTILE FABRICS are made from fine, long staple cotton which is spun into yarn and then doubled for additional strength. The cloth is woven in an Oxford weave which ensures that the threads are set in the most compact arrangement".
Page 247 of Textile Fibers, Yarns and Fabrics, by Ernest R. Kaswel, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1953, states:
A printed sheet of Ashton Brothers & Company Limited states:
A further woven fabric, which is made from cotton, is woven in an Oxford weave; and it is woven so the warp thereof has one hundred and eighty-four (184) two-ply (72/2) ends per inch in the greige state and so the filling thereof has eighty (80) two-ply (60/2) picks per inch in that state. The average diameter of the ends is one hundred and ninety-two (192) microns, and the average diameter of the picks is one hundred and ninety-eight (198) microns. As a result, that woven fabric has a total combined surface area greater than fifty-three thousand (53,000) microns per square inch. However, the wetting time of that woven cloth is only five seconds; and, after fifty washings, that wetting time is only two seconds.